Conference

Fri 04/10, 14.30 - 23.00
Sat 05/10, 11.00 - 20.30
Sun 06/10, 11.00 - 23.00

Ex-Zollamt / Halle & Explosiv
Bahnhofgürtel 55a & 57
8020 Graz / Austria
info@steirischerherbst.at
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Andreas Siekmann "Revolving Door Capitalism"

“Age of disaster” is the term applied by cultural philosopher and activist Lieven de Cauter to our disastrous age marked by dramatic conflicts, growing inequality and the dissolution of final certainty. But where to start rescuing when liaisons dangereuses are starting to get out of hand in all spheres – in politics, in the economy and in society?
In global finance capitalism, the culture of collective sharing is being marginalised, with egoism and destruction being the dominant driving forces and desperation and melancholy the consequences for the individual. “Melancholia”, according to the philosopher Giovanni Leghissa, is the final consequence of the impossibility of articulating needs other than economic ones and indeed of distinguishing between economy and politics at all.
What is wrong with the economy? The ratio economica as the sole, generally accepted meaningful principle makes a utopian project of a society which guarantees human rights and allows everyone to share equitably in social profits. Countering such abstract speculations, the sociologist Erik Olin Wright suggests provocative “Real Utopias” that seek to redesign social institutions fundamentally and specifically: education for all, minimum wages and truly democratic decision-making processes. The conference “Liaisons dangereuses: Seeking emancipatory alternatives in trembling times“, finally sets out to create a space for “community healing”, a process of social justice that also allows wishes and hopes (Hector Aristizábal). But on the other hand, phenomena such as colonialism and racism are reappearing with great vehemence, phenomena which Alanna Lockward is reconsidering in order to find alternative strategies of resistance or exit.
Keeping up the momentum of last year’s “Truth is concrete", the 24/7 marathon camp on artistic strategies in politics and political strategies in art, the conference 2013 is an attempt by steirischer herbst to set up an international discourse platform for philosophical, artistic and political exchange aimed at opening up new, unexplored spaces of thought and action for the future to come.

The conference takes place in the setting of Ex-Zollamt, the festival centre of steirischer herbst 2013. It is accompanied by the exhibition "Liquid Assets. In the Aftermath of the Transformation of Capital" (September 20 – December 1, 2013), curated by Katerina Gregos and Luigi Fassi and hosted at the same venue.

Moderated by
Lieven De Cauter (BE) & Erik Olin Wright (US)

Curated by
Luigi Fassi (AT/IT) & Anne Faucheret (AT/FR)

With :
Hector Aristizábal (CO), Zdenka Badovinac (SI), Beirut (Sarah Rifky (EG), Jens Maier-Rothe (DE), Antonia Alampi (IT)), Aeron Bergman (US/NO), Reinhard Braun (A), Sarah Browne (IR), Ellen Blumenstein (DE), Lieven De Cauter (BE), Jeannette Ehlers (DK), Luigi Fassi (AT/IT), Marianne Flotron (NL/CH), Zachary Formwalt (NL/US), Sam Gindin (CA), Tue Greenfort (DK), Katerina Gregos (BE/GR), Krist Gruijthuijsen (AT/NL), Marina Grzinic (SI), Núria Güell (ES), Jan Peter Hammer (DE), John Jordan (US/FR), Dimitris Kassimatis (GR), Giovanni Leghissa (IT), Alanna Lockward (DE/DO), Florian Malzacher (DE), Markus Miessen (DE), Saverio Pesapane (IT), Taaniel Raudsepp (Visible Solutions (EE)), Oliver Ressler (A), Joshua Simon (ISR), Jonas Staal (NL), Marina Vishmidt (GB), Wooloo (Martin Rosengaard & Sixten Kai Nielsen (DK)) and Erik Olin Wright (US)